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Robo sapiens: Evolution of a new species by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio

By Harold Thimbleby

Robo sapiens&colon; Evolution of a new species by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, MIT Press, £19.95, ISBN 0262133822

THE year 2000 may go down in history as the year a robot first made a scientific discovery&colon; one recently found meteorites as it explored the Antarctic. Some people can boast of having been rescued by robots, while others have robotic implants and limbs. Today’s robots can even build themselves. Inspired by snakes, geckos, cockroaches and fish, robots are sliding, swimming and walking out of laboratories around the world.

Most of us find these haphazard-looking assemblies of engineered bits …